Believe the hype. Film it reminded me of most was Certified Copy, in that the universe of the film isn’t quite on the same plane of existance as us, if that makes sense – something very different and strange, but it’s hard to tell where it’s real or where it isn’t. Sorry, I can’t explain the feeling I got from this any better, you’ll have to see for yourselves. It’s great though, unquestionably. Having seen Amour as well though, I’d still be inclined to say that Amour was the right choice for Cannes, it’s practically a perfect film.
Hmm, one criticism people make about many films I love is that they’re “self-indulgent”. I’m thinking something like Fellini Satyricon – that everything in that film is so absurd and overblown, I find it all the more fascinating. A more recent example might be INLAND EMPIRE – I don’t mind if these filmmakers don’t go for such an understated, subtle approach because the results are so often fascinating even in films like the above ones that do miss the mark in some other areas. But to a point – Kill Bill I find annoying and over-the-top, for example. I guess I’m partial to some filmmakers’ extreme idiosyncrasies, and less to others.
It’s freely available here in Australia on DVD, whereas none of his other 50s ones are.
It’s good, I don’t think great though – like a more idiosyncratic neorealism film, nothing really that we haven’t seen in world cinema before, certainly if you’ve seen Ladri di Bicicletta or Germany Year Zero, etc etc. Bunuel is my favourite director ever, but this isn’t one of my favourites, by a long shot (though Viridiana, Exterminating Angel and Simon of the Desert are, and they’re from the same period) and I’d be inclined to call it overrated. Still, very worthwhile with some great scenes – the aforementioned dream sequence is a knockout.
I agree that some flaws make the film better – the Stormtrooper example is a great one, it involuntarily gives a sense of spontaneity and realness to those guys in suits, that there’s some sort of individuality or confusion among the mass order and conformity.
The aforementioned death of Arbogast in Psycho absolutely kills me, and I can’t give it a pass like some here have. I don’t buy the technology argument either – a cut to black just as he is falling off the top step, with terror in his eyes, would have been perfect. As it stands, it’s just terrible and cringeworthy. Try sitting through that scene with a friend, who you’re trying to convert to old movies, and feel yourself cringe in embarassment. I don’t see how you can see anything endearing in that – it takes you out of the moment.
On Psycho, the epilogue is a stinker as well – that terrible actor of the police character who we’ve never seen before explaining everything down to a minute, logical and boring conclusion is regrettable, I’d like to think Hitchcock didn’t put it in by choice. The last shot however almost makes up for it.
So yeah, most of these flaws are just that – elements of negligence or oversight that stop the film being perfect. For me, I don’t see these sort of flaws helping the movie at all.
Lol when Armond White described his experience of watching the climactic scene of Close Encounters – “I saw the face of god”.
Jirin, that is an interesting way of going about film watching – I only make it to #12, Sunrise. Shame on me, I know. As an aside, Rocco and His Brothers is one of my favourite films, it’s truly excellent.
The Leopard on blu-ray – ignoring the fact that it’s one of the best films ever, it looks like a million bucks. Pretty much costume porn, on amazing sets. The ball scene at the end is perhaps the most “visually pleasing” scene in film history.
Ashes of Time redux – to this day I have no idea what the movie’s plot is about, yet it’s one of my favourites form the period, and probably my favourite WKW, on the strength of its visuals alone.
Last Year at Marienbad – I want to live in that hotel/existential timewarp.
Melancholia and Limits of Control are the two best looking films to me in recent memory, however.
vaguely related then, I saw my first Wes Anderson yesterday, Rushmore. And I hate to say it but…I don’t get it. It’s not really ever funny (except for some Bill Murray moments) and hard to take seriously as a drama – the protagonist is such an insufferable turd. It maintains interest and as I said, some good Bill Murray moments. But its appeal eluded me. Still, not giving up, I’ll give his later films a try for sure – there are elements in this that almost clicked with me.
I also saw The Man in the White Suit. Good English “dramedy”, with strangely offputting Ayn Rand undertones of ignorant masses not tolerating “selfish” achievement. It’s pretty well paced and directed and theres some great shots of the white suit fluorescent in darkness. Decent film, on par with The Ladykillers, but miles short of Sweet Smell of Success, if thinking about Mackendrick films.
I have a bad habit of whenever I’m tossing up films to watch, I end up going for the shorter one. As a result, there are heaps of longer classics that I haven’t yet seen. I’m even talking major films like Lawrence of Arabia, Fanny and Alexander and most shamefully, Gone With The Wind. I dunno, films over 2 hours require a very devoted investment of time for me, and I so often put them off. So yeah, most of the major Wyler/Lean/Cukor etc films I’ve put off.
Of major filmmakers, I still haven’t seen a Mizoguchi, Cassavetes, Dreyer, or any New Wave director outside of JLG, Truffaut or Resnais.
I’ve only seen 1 Kiarostami, 1 Weerasthekul, 2 Truffaut, 3 Kurosawa, 3 Ozu, 1 Fuller, 3 Bergman, 2 Hawks. Truffaut and Kurosawa really didn’t do it for me, despite seeing their most acclaimed films, so that’s where some of that reluctance comes from – the rest I’ve all liked and just havent got around to them.
There’s a few notable Kubricks I’m missing, and just about every silent classic bar Metropolis, Nosferatu, The General and Modern Times.
American indie like W Anderson, Baumbach, Linklater, Soderbergh I haven’t given much of a try.
Of recent years, I still have the DVD of There Will Be Blood sitting at home, thats one of my worst.
Phew, felt good to get those shameful admissions off my chest – this is like Alcoholics Anonymous for cinephiles lol.
There are people here legitimately hating on Lynch/Badalamenti. Watch the opening scene of Mulholland Drive if you want to see the perfect combination of music and images, of the dark winding limo ride overlooking the city of LA, gives me shivers every time.
D Sparky, I didn’t know there were that many films under 90 mins to choose from! But I get way too excited when I check a film and the runtime is listed at 85-89 mins lol.
Captain, I think people are taking the question rather liberally. What started as household name films – GWTW, Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia etc became well known films among cinephiles. Any film buff worth his salt has probably heard of Le Mepris and its considerable reputation. Fame is a relative thing – what’s considered a well-known or famous film on a forum for people to discuss auteur cinema is somewhat different from movies discussed at an office water-cooler.
Which reminds me, I too have not seen Ace in the Hole.
Paulette Goddard in Modern Times, and I rarely find actresses in silent films attractive. Ironically its because her character is deliberately poor and scrappy, she doesn’t have the hokey makeup and perfect hair of what proper silent actresses were supposed to look like.
Agree with the Irene Jacob, I pretty much fell in love with both Veroniques.
Rita Hayworth. “Are you decent, Gilda?” “Me?!?”. Case closed. Killer as short blonde hair in Lady from Shanghai too.
And yes Claudia Cardinale. I’ve never really seen the argument for her compatriot Sofia Loren however, but what’s beauty if not subjective? CC in Once Upon a Time in the West, my god.
Yeah, I didn’t hate Rushmore, but I didn’t like it. I’m not the type of guy to watch one film by a director and then avoid him/her like the plague, I don’t think you can accurately gauge a general feeling until 4-5 films into a director’s body of work. People tell me his style is more developed in later films, and I could get behind that – the stylistic touches were the saving graces of Rushmore. And Tenenbaums has waaay too many actors I like to not warrant a viewing. So will report back.
Only a few handful get 10s from me, has to pretty much be something I haven’t seen before as well as pretty much perfect. If everything gets rated a 10, nothing’s a 10, if you know what I mean. Of favourite directors:
Lynch: love them all, but only Mulholland Drive gets a 10. 1.
Tarkovsky: I haven’t seen his last 2 films, but of the first 5 Stalker is an unquestionable 10, the rest probably fall just short. 1.
Haneke: Hidden is a 10. Amour MIGHT BE, it’s 9.5 for me at the moment. D Sparky – I think you’ll like it if you’ve loved his recent stuff. Funny Games and Code Unknown are close also. I love all his films, but probably only 1 10 among them…for now.
Welles: Citizen Kane, no questions. Haven’t seen The Trial in a long time, that would be a contender. Stay with 1.
Scorsese: Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. 2.
Kieslowski: Red and Veronique, 2.
Bunuel: Exterminating Angel, Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Simon of the Desert. That’s 3, and probably the winner.
Ford: The Searchers and Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 2.
Visconti: The Leopard. Love Rocco and Venice, but stay with 1.
Fellini: 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita both unquestionable 10s. Like plenty more of his films, but none at that level.
Almodovar (Talk to Her), von Trier (Melancholia), Resnais (Marienbad) and a few others have one, and probs a couple others.
Very similar aesthetically to Hud, a favourite of mine, but a pretty great film on all angles.
Collateral – 8/10
Cool movie, Cruise is great. Last half hour lets it down with the Hollywood paradox in these movies – managing to both be extremely implausible, but also predictable. But for the most part it’s extremely slickly shot and very enjoyable.
Truffaut, whose writing and thinking about films I admire much more than his films themselves, said that you should only look at the first 3 films of a directors ouevre, as after that it becomes a “career”. It’s a very cynical way of looking at things, but interesting and relevant to this topic.
For the most part I disagree, I can’t really think of a director who really let success get to their head. Recent directors like Jarmusch, Haneke, von Trier have all been putting out some of their best work, after some 20 years of critical or commercial success. My favourite ever, Bunuel, was putting out mastepieces on the regular over his last 2 decades, but he arguably didn’t have the earlier “success” OP is asking about.
The polarising figure here is Fellini I suppose – the unlimited money and artistic freedom he had by the latter half of his career led to some wild and divisive films like Satyricon and Roma, unfocused and opulent pieces that are a long way from La Strada and Vitelloni. I like them a lot, others paint Fellini as exactly what a director shouldn’t do. I was wondering, Jazzaloha, if you had any particular figure/s in mind?
“A director — often one who’s shown great talent in earlier, less expensive films — who is now so consumed with realizing his spectacular digital vision, and so dependent on the studio’s money to bring the F/X off, that he has neither the leverage nor the energy to fight for more interesting ororiginal plots / themes / characters.”
I was the one who originally put up Haneke and von Trier – this is not to take away from their early work; their respective feature debuts, Seventh Continent and Element of Crime are very striking, impressive and uncompromising films (the latter has a few flaws though), but I can’t think of any directors now working at their level – Amour and Melancholia are both masterpieces IMO, and their recent slew (haven’t seen Antichrist) are generally more mature, but not that much better, but I think it would be hard to make the case that their respective successes have made them worse.
Haven’t seen Nolan’s early stuff, but I agree there were serious problems with Prestige and Inception, it felt like at times Nolan didn’t exactly know how to make the most use of the vast resources at his disposal, especially considering how much promise the premise of Inception had.
Scorsese is the best example of a filmmaker in my mind whose work has gone consistently down hill, inversely proportionate to his growing critical stature and commercial success, and the greatest testament to Jazzaloha’s original argument.
Going to have to add to the MASH hate, the appeal of that film completely eluded me. As humour and as drama it just completely missed the mark for me, and frankly I thought it was boring. Luckily it wasn’t my first Altman because I doubt I would have rushed back. I wish I liked McCabe more, I can see all its merits and think its a great film, but it bored me considerably. Its a film far more interesting to read, talk and think about rather tan actually watch, IMO. Gosford Park also left me cold, I don’t know – it’s all there technically, but something is missing from that film that I can’t put my finger on. Wish I liked it more.
The Long Goodbye is the best I’ve seen from him, probably the best American movie of the 70s that I’ve seen.
Short Cuts and The Player are great films, deserved of all the praise they get. The forgotton member of that “trilogy”, Pret-a-Porter (I think it might have been released in US as “Ready to Wear”) is extremely underrated. I wrote a paper on it once for class, it’s actually a very cool film thats unfairly hated on – doesn’t surpass the other two, but deserves mention.
I haven’t seen some of his major ones – here in Australia there’s a curious lack of Altman films on DVD, as far as I’m aware we don’t have a release of Nashville or 3 Women, or many other 70s efforts. I think he’s a very interesting filmmaker and I plan on seeing more of him.
Yeah Joks you’re right, but I don’t want to disparage Directors Suite and similar labels that are doing very good work to get us up to speed. Films like Bunuel’s The Young One, later Welles and extensive Sirk and Ozu are just recent ones they’ve made available – Altman still has major holes though unfortunately. The unfortunate reality is that there isn’t a big market here for that stuff – most of those purchases are made by DVD stores I imagine. But there’s progress.
And Tigre, I’m generally morally against downloading movies or albums or anything, but my logic is that its legitimate if you can’t physically get it without buying international dvds and region-unlocked players. So downloading a film like Nashville (if I wanted to watch it on a computer screen) I don’t think is immoral if you really want to get it, when I would rent or buy it if it was released on dvd here. Stealing is wrong, but if I can’t legally give someone here money to buy it, missed opportunity for them.
Le Samourai and Chungking Express are perhaps the most alarming missing titles here, btw. Some classics like Out of the Past and Mildred Pierce I’ve tried to find also.
Cool vid. I’m shocked how young and vibrant Tarkovsky looked then; I forgot how young he died. Welles is in good shape here as well. Welles’ filmmaking days were behind him but he was still a fascinating character, sad how quickly after this they both went downhill :(
I’m a strange one in that I have a pretty weak stomach for gore etc, especially of particular types, so a lot of the above movies and movies like them I avoid. That said, purely thematically films don’t disturb me that much – Blue Velvet and Funny Games didn’t effect me that badly in the end (and I think both are masterpieces). So to specify, I had no problem with Dogville, Dancer in the Dark or Breaking the Waves, but I’ve consciously avoided Antichrist, even though I’d like great parts of it I’m sure.
To answer the question, I probably won’t watch The Piano Teacher again.
I will probably end up watching Caligula some day lol – such an operatic, infamous failure of indulgence and talent is too interesting to pass up.
Last movie you saw and rate it 11 months ago
Holy Motors – 9.5/10
Believe the hype. Film it reminded me of most was Certified Copy, in that the universe of the film isn’t quite on the same plane of existance as us, if that makes sense – something very different and strange, but it’s hard to tell where it’s real or where it isn’t. Sorry, I can’t explain the feeling I got from this any better, you’ll have to see for yourselves. It’s great though, unquestionably. Having seen Amour as well though, I’d still be inclined to say that Amour was the right choice for Cannes, it’s practically a perfect film.
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Flaws That Make a Film Better 11 months ago
Hmm, one criticism people make about many films I love is that they’re “self-indulgent”. I’m thinking something like Fellini Satyricon – that everything in that film is so absurd and overblown, I find it all the more fascinating. A more recent example might be INLAND EMPIRE – I don’t mind if these filmmakers don’t go for such an understated, subtle approach because the results are so often fascinating even in films like the above ones that do miss the mark in some other areas. But to a point – Kill Bill I find annoying and over-the-top, for example. I guess I’m partial to some filmmakers’ extreme idiosyncrasies, and less to others.
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LOS OLVIDADOS 11 months ago
It’s freely available here in Australia on DVD, whereas none of his other 50s ones are.
It’s good, I don’t think great though – like a more idiosyncratic neorealism film, nothing really that we haven’t seen in world cinema before, certainly if you’ve seen Ladri di Bicicletta or Germany Year Zero, etc etc. Bunuel is my favourite director ever, but this isn’t one of my favourites, by a long shot (though Viridiana, Exterminating Angel and Simon of the Desert are, and they’re from the same period) and I’d be inclined to call it overrated. Still, very worthwhile with some great scenes – the aforementioned dream sequence is a knockout.
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Flaws That Make a Film Better 11 months ago
I agree that some flaws make the film better – the Stormtrooper example is a great one, it involuntarily gives a sense of spontaneity and realness to those guys in suits, that there’s some sort of individuality or confusion among the mass order and conformity.
The aforementioned death of Arbogast in Psycho absolutely kills me, and I can’t give it a pass like some here have. I don’t buy the technology argument either – a cut to black just as he is falling off the top step, with terror in his eyes, would have been perfect. As it stands, it’s just terrible and cringeworthy. Try sitting through that scene with a friend, who you’re trying to convert to old movies, and feel yourself cringe in embarassment. I don’t see how you can see anything endearing in that – it takes you out of the moment.
On Psycho, the epilogue is a stinker as well – that terrible actor of the police character who we’ve never seen before explaining everything down to a minute, logical and boring conclusion is regrettable, I’d like to think Hitchcock didn’t put it in by choice. The last shot however almost makes up for it.
So yeah, most of these flaws are just that – elements of negligence or oversight that stop the film being perfect. For me, I don’t see these sort of flaws helping the movie at all.
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Last movie you saw and rate it 11 months ago
Lol when Armond White described his experience of watching the climactic scene of Close Encounters – “I saw the face of god”.
Jirin, that is an interesting way of going about film watching – I only make it to #12, Sunrise. Shame on me, I know. As an aside, Rocco and His Brothers is one of my favourite films, it’s truly excellent.
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Cinema as an art: Everyone post 5 Greatest Films 11 months ago
Mulholland Drive
Last Year at Marienbad
Stalker
Persona
La Dolce Vita
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3 most visually pleasing films you've ever seen 11 months ago
I can stick to 3 I guess.
The Leopard on blu-ray – ignoring the fact that it’s one of the best films ever, it looks like a million bucks. Pretty much costume porn, on amazing sets. The ball scene at the end is perhaps the most “visually pleasing” scene in film history.
Ashes of Time redux – to this day I have no idea what the movie’s plot is about, yet it’s one of my favourites form the period, and probably my favourite WKW, on the strength of its visuals alone.
Last Year at Marienbad – I want to live in that hotel/existential timewarp.
Melancholia and Limits of Control are the two best looking films to me in recent memory, however.
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Last movie you saw and rate it 11 months ago
vaguely related then, I saw my first Wes Anderson yesterday, Rushmore. And I hate to say it but…I don’t get it. It’s not really ever funny (except for some Bill Murray moments) and hard to take seriously as a drama – the protagonist is such an insufferable turd. It maintains interest and as I said, some good Bill Murray moments. But its appeal eluded me. Still, not giving up, I’ll give his later films a try for sure – there are elements in this that almost clicked with me.
I also saw The Man in the White Suit. Good English “dramedy”, with strangely offputting Ayn Rand undertones of ignorant masses not tolerating “selfish” achievement. It’s pretty well paced and directed and theres some great shots of the white suit fluorescent in darkness. Decent film, on par with The Ladykillers, but miles short of Sweet Smell of Success, if thinking about Mackendrick films.
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Really Famous films you've never seen 11 months ago
I have a bad habit of whenever I’m tossing up films to watch, I end up going for the shorter one. As a result, there are heaps of longer classics that I haven’t yet seen. I’m even talking major films like Lawrence of Arabia, Fanny and Alexander and most shamefully, Gone With The Wind. I dunno, films over 2 hours require a very devoted investment of time for me, and I so often put them off. So yeah, most of the major Wyler/Lean/Cukor etc films I’ve put off.
Of major filmmakers, I still haven’t seen a Mizoguchi, Cassavetes, Dreyer, or any New Wave director outside of JLG, Truffaut or Resnais.
I’ve only seen 1 Kiarostami, 1 Weerasthekul, 2 Truffaut, 3 Kurosawa, 3 Ozu, 1 Fuller, 3 Bergman, 2 Hawks. Truffaut and Kurosawa really didn’t do it for me, despite seeing their most acclaimed films, so that’s where some of that reluctance comes from – the rest I’ve all liked and just havent got around to them.
There’s a few notable Kubricks I’m missing, and just about every silent classic bar Metropolis, Nosferatu, The General and Modern Times.
American indie like W Anderson, Baumbach, Linklater, Soderbergh I haven’t given much of a try.
Of recent years, I still have the DVD of There Will Be Blood sitting at home, thats one of my worst.
Phew, felt good to get those shameful admissions off my chest – this is like Alcoholics Anonymous for cinephiles lol.
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Top10 directors choosing music (and mixing it with images) 11 months ago
There are people here legitimately hating on Lynch/Badalamenti. Watch the opening scene of Mulholland Drive if you want to see the perfect combination of music and images, of the dark winding limo ride overlooking the city of LA, gives me shivers every time.
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Really Famous films you've never seen 11 months ago
D Sparky, I didn’t know there were that many films under 90 mins to choose from! But I get way too excited when I check a film and the runtime is listed at 85-89 mins lol.
Captain, I think people are taking the question rather liberally. What started as household name films – GWTW, Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia etc became well known films among cinephiles. Any film buff worth his salt has probably heard of Le Mepris and its considerable reputation. Fame is a relative thing – what’s considered a well-known or famous film on a forum for people to discuss auteur cinema is somewhat different from movies discussed at an office water-cooler.
Which reminds me, I too have not seen Ace in the Hole.
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WHO IS / WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FILM ACTRESS EVER? 11 months ago
Paulette Goddard in Modern Times, and I rarely find actresses in silent films attractive. Ironically its because her character is deliberately poor and scrappy, she doesn’t have the hokey makeup and perfect hair of what proper silent actresses were supposed to look like.
Agree with the Irene Jacob, I pretty much fell in love with both Veroniques.
Rita Hayworth. “Are you decent, Gilda?” “Me?!?”. Case closed. Killer as short blonde hair in Lady from Shanghai too.
And yes Claudia Cardinale. I’ve never really seen the argument for her compatriot Sofia Loren however, but what’s beauty if not subjective? CC in Once Upon a Time in the West, my god.
Of current actors working, Mila Kunis.
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Last movie you saw and rate it 11 months ago
Yeah, I didn’t hate Rushmore, but I didn’t like it. I’m not the type of guy to watch one film by a director and then avoid him/her like the plague, I don’t think you can accurately gauge a general feeling until 4-5 films into a director’s body of work. People tell me his style is more developed in later films, and I could get behind that – the stylistic touches were the saving graces of Rushmore. And Tenenbaums has waaay too many actors I like to not warrant a viewing. So will report back.
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Which directors have you given the most 10/10's to? 11 months ago
Only a few handful get 10s from me, has to pretty much be something I haven’t seen before as well as pretty much perfect. If everything gets rated a 10, nothing’s a 10, if you know what I mean. Of favourite directors:
Lynch: love them all, but only Mulholland Drive gets a 10. 1.
Tarkovsky: I haven’t seen his last 2 films, but of the first 5 Stalker is an unquestionable 10, the rest probably fall just short. 1.
Haneke: Hidden is a 10. Amour MIGHT BE, it’s 9.5 for me at the moment. D Sparky – I think you’ll like it if you’ve loved his recent stuff. Funny Games and Code Unknown are close also. I love all his films, but probably only 1 10 among them…for now.
Welles: Citizen Kane, no questions. Haven’t seen The Trial in a long time, that would be a contender. Stay with 1.
Scorsese: Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. 2.
Kieslowski: Red and Veronique, 2.
Bunuel: Exterminating Angel, Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Simon of the Desert. That’s 3, and probably the winner.
Ford: The Searchers and Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 2.
Visconti: The Leopard. Love Rocco and Venice, but stay with 1.
Fellini: 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita both unquestionable 10s. Like plenty more of his films, but none at that level.
Almodovar (Talk to Her), von Trier (Melancholia), Resnais (Marienbad) and a few others have one, and probs a couple others.
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Top 10 Directors. 11 months ago
Bunuel
Lynch
Welles
Antonioni
Godard
Tarkovsky
Fellini
Polanski
Jarmusch
Haneke
No order, except probably Bunuel at #1.
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best dark comedies? 11 months ago
Exterminating Angel is my favourite film of all time, so I suppose it’s my pick for best dark comedy as well.
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Last movie you saw and rate it 11 months ago
The Last Picture Show – 8.5/10
Very similar aesthetically to Hud, a favourite of mine, but a pretty great film on all angles.
Collateral – 8/10
Cool movie, Cruise is great. Last half hour lets it down with the Hollywood paradox in these movies – managing to both be extremely implausible, but also predictable. But for the most part it’s extremely slickly shot and very enjoyable.
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Last movie you saw and rate it 11 months ago
Carnival of Souls – 8.5/10
I was genuinely unnerved at parts in this very unique, very atmospheric film. Very awesome.
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Directors and the Impact of Success: Those Who Have Not Let Success Hurt Their Work and Those Who Have 11 months ago
Truffaut, whose writing and thinking about films I admire much more than his films themselves, said that you should only look at the first 3 films of a directors ouevre, as after that it becomes a “career”. It’s a very cynical way of looking at things, but interesting and relevant to this topic.
For the most part I disagree, I can’t really think of a director who really let success get to their head. Recent directors like Jarmusch, Haneke, von Trier have all been putting out some of their best work, after some 20 years of critical or commercial success. My favourite ever, Bunuel, was putting out mastepieces on the regular over his last 2 decades, but he arguably didn’t have the earlier “success” OP is asking about.
The polarising figure here is Fellini I suppose – the unlimited money and artistic freedom he had by the latter half of his career led to some wild and divisive films like Satyricon and Roma, unfocused and opulent pieces that are a long way from La Strada and Vitelloni. I like them a lot, others paint Fellini as exactly what a director shouldn’t do. I was wondering, Jazzaloha, if you had any particular figure/s in mind?
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Directors and the Impact of Success: Those Who Have Not Let Success Hurt Their Work and Those Who Have 11 months ago
If we’re talking about Hollywood filmmakers, then Santino is on the money. Also articulated in my favourite film essay:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/14994144/David-Foster-Wallace-FX-Porn
“A director — often one who’s shown great talent in earlier, less expensive films — who is now so consumed with realizing his spectacular digital vision, and so dependent on the studio’s money to bring the F/X off, that he has neither the leverage nor the energy to fight for more interesting ororiginal plots / themes / characters.”
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Directors and the Impact of Success: Those Who Have Not Let Success Hurt Their Work and Those Who Have 11 months ago
I was the one who originally put up Haneke and von Trier – this is not to take away from their early work; their respective feature debuts, Seventh Continent and Element of Crime are very striking, impressive and uncompromising films (the latter has a few flaws though), but I can’t think of any directors now working at their level – Amour and Melancholia are both masterpieces IMO, and their recent slew (haven’t seen Antichrist) are generally more mature, but not that much better, but I think it would be hard to make the case that their respective successes have made them worse.
Haven’t seen Nolan’s early stuff, but I agree there were serious problems with Prestige and Inception, it felt like at times Nolan didn’t exactly know how to make the most use of the vast resources at his disposal, especially considering how much promise the premise of Inception had.
Scorsese is the best example of a filmmaker in my mind whose work has gone consistently down hill, inversely proportionate to his growing critical stature and commercial success, and the greatest testament to Jazzaloha’s original argument.
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Robert Altman, Director 11 months ago
Going to have to add to the MASH hate, the appeal of that film completely eluded me. As humour and as drama it just completely missed the mark for me, and frankly I thought it was boring. Luckily it wasn’t my first Altman because I doubt I would have rushed back. I wish I liked McCabe more, I can see all its merits and think its a great film, but it bored me considerably. Its a film far more interesting to read, talk and think about rather tan actually watch, IMO. Gosford Park also left me cold, I don’t know – it’s all there technically, but something is missing from that film that I can’t put my finger on. Wish I liked it more.
The Long Goodbye is the best I’ve seen from him, probably the best American movie of the 70s that I’ve seen.
Short Cuts and The Player are great films, deserved of all the praise they get. The forgotton member of that “trilogy”, Pret-a-Porter (I think it might have been released in US as “Ready to Wear”) is extremely underrated. I wrote a paper on it once for class, it’s actually a very cool film thats unfairly hated on – doesn’t surpass the other two, but deserves mention.
I haven’t seen some of his major ones – here in Australia there’s a curious lack of Altman films on DVD, as far as I’m aware we don’t have a release of Nashville or 3 Women, or many other 70s efforts. I think he’s a very interesting filmmaker and I plan on seeing more of him.
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MUBI Greatest Films Poll- 2012 Edition 11 months ago
New to the forums here, so I’ll bite.
The Exterminating Angel
Mulholland Drive
Stalker
The Third Man
Last Year at Marienbad
La Dolce Vita
Persona
The Swimmer (68)
TC: Red
The Leopard
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Your 5 Favourite Directors 11 months ago
Bunuel
Fellini
Lynch
Haneke
Antonioni
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Robert Altman, Director 11 months ago
Yeah Joks you’re right, but I don’t want to disparage Directors Suite and similar labels that are doing very good work to get us up to speed. Films like Bunuel’s The Young One, later Welles and extensive Sirk and Ozu are just recent ones they’ve made available – Altman still has major holes though unfortunately. The unfortunate reality is that there isn’t a big market here for that stuff – most of those purchases are made by DVD stores I imagine. But there’s progress.
And Tigre, I’m generally morally against downloading movies or albums or anything, but my logic is that its legitimate if you can’t physically get it without buying international dvds and region-unlocked players. So downloading a film like Nashville (if I wanted to watch it on a computer screen) I don’t think is immoral if you really want to get it, when I would rent or buy it if it was released on dvd here. Stealing is wrong, but if I can’t legally give someone here money to buy it, missed opportunity for them.
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Robert Altman, Director 11 months ago
Le Samourai and Chungking Express are perhaps the most alarming missing titles here, btw. Some classics like Out of the Past and Mildred Pierce I’ve tried to find also.
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Tarkovsky, Bresson and Welles in Cannes (1983) 11 months ago
Cool vid. I’m shocked how young and vibrant Tarkovsky looked then; I forgot how young he died. Welles is in good shape here as well. Welles’ filmmaking days were behind him but he was still a fascinating character, sad how quickly after this they both went downhill :(
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Last movie you saw and rate it 11 months ago
Lover, totally agree with Iron Lady – what total BS, can’t believe there was serious Oscar talk for this.
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how old are you guys anyway 11 months ago
21
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which is the sickest, most disturbing film you've ever seen? 11 months ago
I’m a strange one in that I have a pretty weak stomach for gore etc, especially of particular types, so a lot of the above movies and movies like them I avoid. That said, purely thematically films don’t disturb me that much – Blue Velvet and Funny Games didn’t effect me that badly in the end (and I think both are masterpieces). So to specify, I had no problem with Dogville, Dancer in the Dark or Breaking the Waves, but I’ve consciously avoided Antichrist, even though I’d like great parts of it I’m sure.
To answer the question, I probably won’t watch The Piano Teacher again.
I will probably end up watching Caligula some day lol – such an operatic, infamous failure of indulgence and talent is too interesting to pass up.
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